For the 2021 holiday season, I'm posting a series of festive concert waltzes for coloratura soprano through New Year's Eve.

THE SONGBIRD: Canadian soprano Louise Le Cavelier studied at the Quebec Conservatoire and privately with Raoul Jobin and Rose Bampton. She appeared regularly on opera and operetta stages and in broadcasts throughout Canada, and toured Europe in Orff's "Carmina Burana." This performance is conducted by Pierre Cao.

THE MUSIC: Johann Strauss II was the son of Johann Strauss, and brother to Josef Strauss and Eduard Strauss. All were Viennese composers in the 19th century who specialized in sophisticated waltzes and light music, but Johann II's music was (and remains) the most popular. He was known as "The Waltz King" in his time and most of the Viennese waltzes we hum now were composed by him -- not to mention his enormously successful and genre-defining operettas such as "Die Fledermaus." His waltz "An der schönen, blauen Donau" (On the Beautiful Blue Danube) is one of the most recognizable classical tunes of all time. It premiered in Vienna in 1867 as a choral piece with words by Joseph Weyl, but achieved long-lasting popularity in its orchestral version.

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